


I Always Smells Burnings

by NeasieB



Category: Ghosts (TV 2019)
Genre: Fear of Death, Flashbacks, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:26:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26645977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeasieB/pseuds/NeasieB
Summary: Mary is a comic character but her death must have been terrible. I wondered what she must have thought about the night before her execution.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	I Always Smells Burnings

Sometimes they grants you the mercy of being strangled. That way you be dead when they burns you. Sometimes they do. 

She knew that was the most she could hope for now - to be strangled first. She knew there would be no reprieve, not for a condemned witch. She was going to die tomorrow. Somehow.

She wondered, if they did come to strangle her, would she struggle? It would be most sensible not to, knowing what would come after. But it was natural for the body to try to keep on living for another moment, heedless of what would come later. And if they didn't strangle her, if they dragged her living to the pyre, what then? She thought of how it felt when she burned her arm on a hot pan and tried to imagine her whole body burning that way. How could she endure it? When gentlefolk were burned at the stake, their relatives would bribe the executioner to tie a bag of gunpowder around their necks so it would explode and end their sufferings quickly. But no one would do that for her. Perhaps if she prayed to God He would make it easier for her…

She had told them true when she had said she wasn't a witch. She believed in witches, of course. Everyone did. The King himself was obsessed with witches and if so great a man believed, how could a mere servant like her think otherwise? 

But Rebecca, the senior dairy maid, had been jealous. She had seen how Robert who worked in the stables was sweet on Mary. It was no surprise. Although a new widow, Mary was still young, fair of face and neatly made. People sometimes thought she was stupid just because she was a farm servant with a country accent, but she was a good worker and had all the skills needed of a good wife. She could weave a basket, milk a cow, card and spin wool, and knit stockings as well as anyone, and teach those skills to others too. Everyone expected a wedding after a decent interval after Mary’s husband’s death. But Rebecca wanted Robert for herself and so had denounced Mary as a witch. She claimed she had seen Mary cast a spell which caused the plough to crush her husband and kill him. Witch mania was so heightened those accused were rarely acquitted, so it was an easy way to get rid of someone who was in the way.

Perhaps she should try to sleep a little. Or better to pray perhaps? It wouldn’t be long now. 

And after they had killed her, what then? At her trial they had told her Heaven would never accept the soul of a condemned witch, but the priest had told her a truly Godfearing woman could not be sent to Hell. Perhaps she'd just stay, her ghost haunting the Button estate forever....

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I know it wasn't called Button Hall in Mary's time, but I had to get the link in somehow.


End file.
